Winter 2021

NSPE Today
Robert S. Miller III, P.E., F.NSPE

November 9, 1945 – December 3, 2020

Bob Miller, P.E., F.NSPE, never saw engineering as a job. For him, it was a calling. One of his favorite axioms: “You get out of something in proportion to what you put into it.” And like so many other things in his life, he put everything into the engineering profession.

Miller, who served as NSPE president in 2006–07 and led MSA P.C. in Virginia Beach, Virginia, for over 45 years, passed away from cancer on December 3. He was 75.

During his term as NSPE president, and in the two years leading up to his presidency, Miller was deeply involved in a strategic initiative to strengthen the nationwide partnership of state societies that have made up NSPE since its founding in 1934. The effort was a major organizational shift, the main tenets of which are still emphasized today.

Miller also used his presidential term as an opportunity to share his great pride in the profession and NSPE with others. “We must stand firm in the unqualified belief that the PE license is the highest calling of the engineering profession,” he said during his installation speech in Boston, “and that NSPE is the professional organization for all PEs.”

About 34 years before becoming president, Miller began his journey with the Society when he joined NSPE and the Tidewater Chapter of the Virginia Society of Professional Engineers on October 1, 1972. In a 2007 PE magazine article, he recalled, “I was ecstatic that I had my PE, and I wanted to get involved in the organization that represented that elite group.”

TO CELEBRATE THE 2017 PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS DAY, MILLER SHARED HIS THOUGHTS ON BEING A PE: “BECAME A PE BECAUSE I WANTED TO GO INTO BUSINESS FOR MYSELF. STAYED A PE BECAUSE BEING IN BUSINESS AND SERVING THE PUBLIC IS WHAT I WAS MADE TO DO. MANY HELPED ME AND THEREFORE, I WAS ABLE TO HELP MANY."

Through the Tidewater Chapter, he built many friendships. By his own account, those friendships led to leadership and business opportunities, professional growth, and involvement in MATHCOUNTS. From there, his commitment and loyalty to the profession led to even more leadership opportunities in VSPE, including VSPE president. At the national level, Miller served as NSPE treasurer, vice president of NSPE’s Professional Engineers in Private Practice, and on the NSPE Education Foundation Board of Trustees.

Born and raised in Norfolk, Virginia, Miller graduated from Virginia Tech in 1967 with a degree in civil engineering. Following his time at Virginia Tech, he was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the US Army and taught Officer Candidate School at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia, before receiving orders to Vietnam. As a lieutenant with the 29th Civil Affairs Company with the 1st Marine Division, he was awarded the Bronze Star in 1969.

After two years designing land development projects for John Flora and Associates, Miller founded MSA P.C., in 1973. The firm’s first project was a residential subdivision, and over the years it expanded into a multidisciplinary engineering firm with more than 40 employees. Today, the firm’s portfolio includes local schools and universities; office, retail, hospitality, industrial, and manufacturing facilities; and environmental, government, and residential projects.

When he wasn’t building his firm or volunteering in the profession, Miller was giving back to his community. For more than 30 years, he was a dedicated volunteer with the Special Olympics, and he was a member of the Virginia Beach Planning Commission and Virginia Beach Vision. He was active in Calvary Presbyterian Church, and in 2020, he was recognized by the Virginia Beach Jaycees as “First Citizen of Virginia Beach.”

In 2012, Miller wrote a tribute in PE magazine to NSPE Past President William Cox, P.E., F.NSPE, who passed away in December 2011. Cox, like Miller was a past president of VSPE and a fellow Virginia Tech Hokie. In his tribute, Miller noted that Cox “served without expectation of benefit or reward, because he wanted to live a life worthwhile.”

So, too, did Miller. In his decades of work for the profession and his community, he often reflected on two Latin words. They are the Virginia Tech motto: Ut Prosim—That I May Serve.